And i'll start by informing you that I work in manufacturing and have somewhat of a passion for it (on occasion).
First question which might lead you to understand how wasteful the jobs bank is.
You have 90,000 years of experience being paid. Do you
(A) Pay people to read the newspaper, smoke and play cards, if they come in at all
(B) Use them on continuous improvement excercises to improve your quality output i.e. Andon cord team.
(C) Further train them in additional tasks so they come out the otherside more useful
(D) B + C
Secondly, It's sensible to have a maximum of 10% of your labour force flexible, greater than that and you are at risk of making big mistakes. (p.s. jobs bank is not temp labour, ie unpaid when stood down)
re: UAW and agreements
Adding the equivalent of about $5 per hour in production costs. Whilst Toyota could build a car roughly 15% faster than GM
The bottom line is that piss poor management (with crappy vision), the sloan accounting system and a stupid short sighted union has produced this crisis.
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orggre guna lbh fvapr '77